Throughout our country, we have seen a steady decline in the arts taught in schools. In some cases it's from budget cuts and in others it’s because the “No Child Left Behind” curriculum focuses on math and reading. I'm sure the policy was well-intentioned, but a few years down the road, we are seeing the importance of art in schools.
Art has a tremendous benefit for students and society alike. But let's focus on the students. With budget cuts in California, major cities like Los Angeles experienced a sharp decline in art education but the schools that were hit the hardest were those in low-income and ethnic communities. In the high income, predominantly white school districts, the art programs remained funded to a significantly higher degree. These same school district high-income schools experience, higher test scores, more college readiness, and lower disciplinary actions.
You might say that the defunding of art in low-income school districts isn’t the cause for higher rates of disciplinary actions, lower test scores, or less college readiness; but it is certainly a factor.
The benefits of art has been widely studied and shown to have a huge impact on positive child and young adult development. Art is not just about fancy paintings hanging on a wall but art also provides a non-verbal outlet to explore emotions. Art is vitally important to society. The benefits of art are profound. From reducing stress to younger kids improve their motor functions. From developing creativity to increasing non-art-related school performance. I’m not saying that art is a cureall panacea, but it is a helpful tool in the toolshed. A toolshed that has been reduced to a toolbox for those in underserved communities.
Nxtgenart hopes that we can help grow the awareness of art’s importance. We hope we can help the underserved communities one drop at a time because we believe that a world with more artists is a better world. People will say that this mission is woo-woo, or unsubstantiated but art is crucial for children’s healthy development. Most affluent parents seem to agree. We just hope that the arts will be made available to all because the creative process is the foundation for all new advancements in our society.
To help, there are many grants and charities we can donate to that focus on underserved community art programs. One of the ones that we focus on is Donors Choose that allows donors to help specific teachers with supplies for teaching their classes. It's sometimes shocking to people but most teachers are buying supplies for their students out of their own pockets.
